President Biden is placing Kamala Harris in charge of addressing the substantial uptick in migrants, including unaccompanied children, flocking to the U.S.-Mexico border, handing a major political risk to his vice president.
As vice president, Biden was dispatched by then-President Barack Obama to address an increase in the arrival of Central American children at the U.S.-Mexico border — or what Biden at the time called a "dangerous surge of migration."
Now, as the White House faces a renewed uptick in the number of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum, Biden is giving Harris a similar role.
"This increase has been consequential," the president said at an afternoon event announcing the move. "I can't think of nobody who is better qualified than, this a woman who led the second-biggest attorney general's office in America," he said, referring to her time as California's AG.
